Government relations Government relations activities continue to be a high priority at MIRA. MIRA recognizes the importance of local government champions, as well as leaders with a broader, national mandate. In the past year, MIRA maintained its existing government relationships, but efforts to build new government relations were put on hold due to the fall 2021 federal election and while both the federal and provincial governments continued to focus on COVID-19. MIRA expects to ramp up these efforts again in 2022. Recently, the Optimal Aging Portal was presented to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Aging and Senior’s division for a demonstration of how a government agency could partner with MIRA, through the Portal, as a knowledge hub for evidence sharing. In the past year, MIRA had several conversations with ministers for seniors, labour and international development to discuss their support for an initiative to develop a Canadian big data platform that would advance Canada’s health and innovation agenda. This initiative is in development through the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging and supported by MIRA.
Leveraging MIRA and LCMA funds In 2021, MIRA continued to be successful in leveraging funds to support many of MIRA’s initiatives. Some examples of leveraged funds include: Two MIRA members who collaborated on a catalyst grant were successful in applying for the New Frontier Research Funds for projects
Co-funding AGE-WELL PDF and PhD
Matching funds for MIRA & LCMA trainee funding opportunities
$500,000
Co-funding the two IPRC Catalyst Grant
$246,000
MIRA was able to apply for funding for the CIHR Summer Program in Aging 2021 virtual event
$75,000 and further raised $21,500 through sponsorship
$35,000 $60,000
Dr. Manaf Zargoush’s 2018 Catalyst grant enabled a successful 2021-2026 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grant
$160,525
Drs. Beauchamp and Ganann each received the Early Researcher Award to complement MacM3 and EMBOLDEN work
$300,000
PART 7: Funding and research impact
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